Saturday, May 09, 2009

Cleveland At Red Sox, 5/6/2009

Fenway on a Wednesday night. Got there for BP from the Monster--got no home run balls. Went to the bleachers and briefly had them literally all to myself--but no homers went out there during that time. Was the classic day--nice out, until dark, when I started freezing. Click each pic to enlarge. Only the above one is messed with.

Smoltz goofin' around in pre-game, taken from bleachers, before I headed down close.

At right, old seats, and old concrete on ground. At left, new and new. I don't know why it took me so long to get a shot from the dividing line.

A few Clevelanders.

The center field NESN sign was blue last year, changed to black for the start of this season, and now is white-on-green.

In that doorway in left field: Tubes, tubes, tubes! And also bags and a staircase. By the way, this movie crew seemed to be filming the people from some ocean race thing. Later the one dude was interviewed by Heidi and had a personalized Sox jersey with "1946" (I think) as the number.

I've noted this before--it's either a light in the room behind the board, or the sun is somehow making its way in the back and then out the front--which seems impossible.

Varitek and Kottaras. I found a good spot to get some just-before-game shots.

It was right at the far edge of the rolled-up tarp (left) and above this drain.

Jon Van Every.

JVE's arm and Wally way out on the warning track.

Ppai adn Jhonny.

Dustin Pedroia.

Jeff Bailey.

Papi's daily stretch ritual.

Nice pic of Mike Lowell.

Nick Green and Jon Van E.

This blurry shot would NOT have made the cut--but look, the B on his hat and the letters on the board behind him spell BAY!

Jeff Bailey high-tails it outta there.

I could straighten this shot of David Ortiz, but I really like it this way!

Jason Bay's leg. They really do wear red socks under there.

So I'm back up at my single seat which I was very excited for. The last row, the last seat, in the furthest bleacher section over toward right field. So for my second straight game, I had no seats behind me and no people needing to get past me--walls behind and beside me.

Looking down into the gap between bleachers and grandstand. Of course, I'm used to this, as my ten-game plan seats are also along this fence--but it's much scarier looking down from the top row. Normally I look across the gap at the people awkwardly looking back at me from the grandstand--here you're alone in the sky. Although people are actually above and behind you at the top of that relatively new staircase.

The very top of the railing that runs up the side of the bleachers.

Up in row 50, you're well behind the light tower.

Warning tracks always look much thinner on TV--you can see how wide they are from the side.

Bad picture, but, finally I spot a new message from the I Like Baseball guy: "Score Runs." At this point I've left the cold of the bleachers and gone to the perfectly reasonable temps of the standing room area behind home plate. But quickly the Tribe made it 9-2, and I made my move to the field boxes:

Here's Lowell at third. I love this first base side view, yet for some reason I usually go to the third base side when I go to the good seats. Also, it seemed warmer down there--maybe having the great seat makes you just forget about a little wind.

Hunter Jones. The other pitcher I saw from that seat was Lopez. I will not post his picture in an effort to save your computer screen from getting smashed.

How weird is this? Doesn't it look like Asdrubal has a prosthetic arm and it's flying out of his sleeve?

Grady Sizemore at bat.

David Ortiz up.

Close-up of Varitek.

Jhonny up. Our ninth inning non-rally fell short and I made a great escape and was home in no time. I'm telling you, when a double play ends the game, most people don't realize the game is over, and you can make a sprint for the runway and be on the street before the person next to you has grabbed their coat.